Great Composer Quiz - Previous Answers (Highlight to reveal
the Composer or Masterwork)
May 7th: Name that Tune/Composer: It's a birthday quiz
today, as this Great composer was born on this date in
1840. He was born in the small town of Votkinsk, Russia.
For your tune, at the time of his death at age 53 the
composer claimed he felt this was his greatest symphony.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his
Symphony No.5
May 6th: This time it's a Great Conductor Quiz. This
Great Conductor was forced out of his last gig by angry
musicians, but now he has been named as the tenth music
director in the history of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, starting with the 2010-11 season. He had
previously turned down the position of music director
at the New York Philharmonic. It's a five-year
contract, for him to conduct ten weeks a season, in
addition to leading domestic and foreign tours. His
salary was not disclosed, but his predecessor received
$2.03 million. So who is this new maestro in Chicago,
this Great Conductor?
Riccardo Muti, who in 2005 was
forced out as Music Director at La Scala after nearly
twenty years. Unlike his predecessor in Chicago, Daniel
Barenboim, who shunned all responsibilities that didn't
relate directly to making music, Muti has made it clear
he wants to be a big part of the orchestra's outreach
programs. Muti first conducted the Chicago Symphony in
1975. He later became Music Director of the Philadelphia
Orchestra.
May 5th: This time it's a quiz to find out if you
have done the required reading over the weekend. At age
27 this Great Composer described himself as sensual
and jealous by nature. He married that year to a woman
who was artfully-inclined and possessed a certain
stoicism in her manner. Our Great Composer would later
remind her she also possessed "colossal reserves of
iron and strength." Immediately after their wedding our
Great Composer's first major work was named after the
area in which he and his new bride had honeymooned.
So who was this new groom, this Great Composer?
Jean Sibelius. More details can
be found right here on our website. Check out "The
Confidence of the Newlywed."
May 2nd: This Great Composer once wrote of his
experience at the conservatory, "After three years of
hard labor, here I am with a diploma in my hand which
bestows on me the title of contrapuntalist. Proud of
my learning, I set out to compose. My first work is
this style is Choral and Fugue for piano duet. I have
certainly been yelled at in my poor life, but never
have I been so looked down on. What had I been up to
with [my teacher]? I had written pieces before with
such rich charm! And now? What a drag! What a bore!"
So who was this man unhappy with his school, this
Great Composer?
Erik Satie, who returned to
school at age forty, the Scholar Cantorum, where he
studied with Albert Roussel and Vincent d'Indy. That
passage about his Choral and Fugue was written in the
catalogue he kept of his own works. In it Satie wrote
short advertisements for many of his pieces.
Regarding the Gymnopedies he wrote, "We cannot
recommend too highly to music-lovers at large this
deeply artistic work which is rightly described as one
of the finest of the age into which this poor
gentleman was born.”
May 1st: This time it's a Quiz about how to stand up
for your friends. After a performance of a new work by
a friend, our Great Composer found himself among a large
group of concertgoers, and one in particular was trashing
the new music. He found fault first with one thing and
then with another... he went on and on with - what was
described as - "impudent assurance," and he said, "I
should never have done it in that way!" At this point
our Great Composer was fed up, and he stopped the
critic and replied, "Nor should I, but do you know why?
Because neither you nor I would have had so good an idea."
So who was this loyal friend, this Great Composer?
Mozart, who stood up for his
friend Joseph Haydn after a performance of one of
Haydn's string quartets. The loud mouth critic was
Leopold Kozeluh, who it so happens was offered the
post Mozart left in Salzburg, but refused it.
Apr 30th: Name that Tune ~ This piece was written for
cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, who was also a professor
at the Moscow Conservatory. However, after Fitzenhagen
performed the premier of the piece, he grew rather moved
to change the original score. As a result of moving around
the score sections, Fitzenhagen wrote the composer praising
his own changes. As a result of the composer's insecurity,
the changes stood... at least until 1941, when cellist Victor
Kubatsky did extensive score reconstruction, and played
the as intended original 1877 version.
Variations on a Rococo Theme
by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Highlights for May 5th - May 9th:
Monday, May 5
6:00 Music to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by Mexican composers Carlos Chavez and Silvestre Revueltas.
7:00 New Release: Martha Argerich and Friends at the Lugano Festival 2007, playing the Beethoven Ghost Trio.
8:15 Stravinsky Speaks. The start of a series with the Great Composer in conversation about some of his greatest works. Today: the premiere of the ballet The Rite of Spring.
Tuesday, May 6
7:00 New Release: Erich Kunzel conducts the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in music from Carmen by Bizet.
8:15 Stravinsky Speaks. More of Igor Stravinsky talking about the premiere of the concert version of The Rite of Spring. Also, a performance by the conductor who led that premiere Pierre Monteux.
Wednesday, May 7
7:00 New Release: Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Justin Brown perform George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
8:15 Stravinsky Speaks. More of our series of Igor Stravinsky in conversation about some of his most dynamic works. Today he talks about how he wrote L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale). Also, a performance of music from the work conducted by Stravinsky in 1961.
Thursday, May 8
7:00 New Release: One of the foremost Japanese composers of the first half of the 20th century, Hisato Ohzawa's Symphony No.2, from 1934.
8:15 Stravinsky Speaks. The last in our series featuring Igor Stravinsky in conversation. Today the Great Composer talks about seeing Tchaikovsky, and about performing his own music. We’ll also hear Stravinsky at the piano with violinist Samuel Dushkin in the Suite italienne, recorded in 1933.
Friday, May 9
6:15 Carlo Maria Giulini, born in Barletta, Italy on this date in 1914, is heard in conversation, along with some of his most beloved records.
7:00 New Release: Gambist Paolo Pandolfo and harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini play a sonata by Carl Philipp Emanual Bach.
8:02 The best selling classical record in America today, according to the Billboard charts.
8:15 What's New at the Movies? Sample clips from films opening today.
